Didn't the guy write hundreds of thousands of words? That's kind of sad.

 

Harry Crow has Words: 737,006.
His stuff is rather popular. He can just derive pleasure from all the people who apparently find his stories enjoyable. All of them have thousands of reviews/favorites, so he's probably very happy with his work.

 

That's true. Speaking for myself though, I don't like most of the top reviewed fics in ff.net

Edit: Looked at the author's profile, his stuff combined should be over 60k reviews. Pretty impressive, my HP one-shot has the incredible amount of four reviews (I'm most certainly not jealous).

 

McDonalds has average food, yet it is extremly popular and well consumed. Most top FFN fics are the McDonalds of imagination.

 

Heh, this metaphor is especially apt in case of someone like Healer Pomfrey, who has 300+ fics of the same "recipe" — sick!Harry + mentor!snape.

 

Hmm. Hopefully I'm not going to repeat anything someone else has said, but 47 pages was a lot, and I guarantee that I've forgotten most of what was said. But here are a few of mine anyway:

1. Present tense. That goes for original fiction and published books as well - nothing yanks me out of a story faster than present tense. I have read a couple of books that were so good I read them anyway, but never a fanfic.

2. Lucius as a incestuous paedo/psychopathic abuser who would literally kill his own son (and did, in a couple of fics I shudder to recall and nope'd out of ASAP). I can buy emotional abuse - I can definitely buy the argument that even spoiling Draco was a form of emotional abuse, so in a way, yes. But I can't buy the über-pureblood, blood-is-everything Lucius being willing to jeopardize his heir by beating him and starving him. It doesn't make sense to me.

3. Sirius (or whoever) is alive ten years after Voldemort's defeat without even a handwave. I...think some explanation is required, since it would impact Harry, if nothing else. But nope - just an author's note: 'Sirius is alive!'

 

At this point I'm pretty sure everything that you could possibly be peeved about has probably be been mentioned. As for present tense I hear you it's like the flow of the story just gets thrown off.

 

Oh, most likely, since this is the tenth thread of this kind, too. Still, I feel better having got them off my chest.

I completely agree, it's like my brain is so drawn to the altered verbs that the story ends up seeming choppy and jarring. When an author chooses present tense, it shifts my focus from the story to the mechanics of what's been written. It's unfortunate that so many published books are present tense right now, or so it seems when I'm browsing the bookstore. I'm hoping it's a fad that will go away in a year or two.

 

That's just a plot device authors use to give Draco a justified reason for being a sniveling cunt, in hope for the cancer community of rabid fangirls will empathize with.

 

I would recommend that you have a look at Joe669's work though. Even though the present tense is a bit off putting he is a quality fiction writer and a vetren DLPer.

https://www.fanfiction.net/u/557425/joe6991

 

The exact opposite is true for me. When written right, no prose seems to flow better than present tense. Preferably in third person.

As for good fanfics in present tense:

Cauterize

The Changeling

The Asking Price

The Anatomist

Apple Crumble, Apple Cart

I Need A Hero

Left Hook

Monochromatic

The Last Enemy

All this Waiting for Skies to Fall


Pete91888: Which of Joe's stories is present tense?

 

I thought Wastelands was present tense. I thought first person and present tense was the same thing.

https://www.fanfiction.net/s/4068153/1/Harry-Potter-and-the-Wastelands-of-Time

 

Pete91888 - On my to-read list now. I've seen Wastelands recced several times, but never checked it out, and several other summaries look interesting, too. Thanks for the rec!
SeekingSerenity - Oh, beyond all doubt! (Except maybe in the ones where Draco ends up horribly murdered. Maybe.) I can't remember the name of it now, but the first time I saw that device was in a story where Snape rescues Harry from the Dursleys when he's six because...reasons, and then a year later, he rescues Draco from a psychotic, enraged Lucius (Narcissa was MIA, but I think the story was written before HBP, so that might be why), and Snape adopts both boys. Draco is tragic and whiny. Where that story lost me, though, was the time skip to 15 years old, when suddenly the two boys, despite thinking of one another as brothers up to then, suddenly decided they were Made For Each Other. Yeah.... I have seen several other examples, but that one sticks out in my brain.

 

I've noticed one pet peeve that seems to strangely occur in Science Fiction crossovers mostly. A fic might be listed as starring Master Chief or John Shepard (Usually with no one else) but he'll only be in the story for about 20-25% of the time and won't show up until Chapter 10.

Also, every time I see someone give Shepard a first name that isn't JOhn I get so annoyed. It's practically canon that that is his first name. The famel version you can do whatver you want but I prefer Jane.

 

This annoys me too.

 

Prince/King/Queen/Princess of X house.

 

You talking about the age old quote: "Draco Malfoy the Prince of Slytherin" BS from other fics?

Don't forget the "Golden Trio"

 

Yeah, though lately I've come across several summaries that list Hermione as the "Gryffindor Princess".

 

That sounds like an Emma Watson wank to me.